Today's interview is with Molly Manning Walker who is making her directorial debut with How to Have Sex.

Molly Manning Walker is a Cinematographer and Writer/Director based in London. She graduated from the NFTS Cinematography course in 2019. Molly’s first short film 'Good Thanks, You?' was included in the Semaine De La Critique program at Cannes and her debut feature, How To Have Sex , subsequently won the Next Step prize at Cannes for the script. Molly's second short, 'The Forgotten C' was also BIFA nominated.

How To Have Sex won the top prize in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival.

Trailer

Synopsis:

From Academy Award® nominated filmmaker Ava DuVernay, ORIGIN explores the mystery of history, the wonders of romance, and a fight for our future. While investigating the global phenomenon of caste and its dark influence on society, a journalist faces unfathomable personal loss and uncovers the beauty of human resilience. 

Ava DuVernay | Director, Writer, Producer 

Ava DuVernay is an Academy Award nominee and winner of the Emmy, BAFTA, Sundance, Image and Peabody Awards. Her feature film directorial work includes the historical drama Selma, the criminal justice documentary 13th and Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time, which made her the highest grossing Black woman director in American box office history. Her latest project is the feature film ORIGIN, based on the best-selling book “Caste: The Origin of our Discontent” by Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson. She amplifies the work of directors of color and women of all kinds through her narrative change collective, ARRAY. DuVernay sits on the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, representing the directors branch in her second term. She is also a Vice-President of the Directors Guild of America and an advisory board member of the American Film Institute. 

Show Notes:

Some Thoughts on the Oscar Nominations

In this gentle meditation on fatherhood, brotherhood and manhood, five fathers of trans children join Dennis Shepard – the father of slain gay college student Matthew Shepard – for a weekend fishing trip in rural Oklahoma. As the men cast their lines into the river, they find common ground across racial, geographical and generational lines: their unconditional love for their children.

Directed + Produced By: Luchina Fisher

Executive Producers: Dwyane Wade And Jon Marcus

Kristi Jacobson is a director and producer and the Founder of Catalyst Films.

Her films have premiered at the Sundance and Tribeca Film Festivals, have been released in theaters and screened on platforms including Netflix, and HBO, 

Some of Her films include SOLITARY which took audiences deep inside a supermax prison in Western Virginia and A PLACE AT THE TABLE which won the International Documentary Association Pare Lorentz Award, and was nominated for Best Feature Documentary by the Producers Guild of America. 

Her current film, No Accidents is now streaming on HBO Max in the US.

Today's guest is Maryam Keshavarz. She is an Iranian-American writer, director, and producer. Maryam was born in New York City but spent most summers, and some of her school years, in Shiraz, Iran. This bi-national childhood naturally made her a translator of cultures, two cultures often at odds with each other. Maryam initially was pursuing a PhD in Near Eastern Studies focusing on Iran and Gender Studies but 9/11 propelled her to enter the media arena to try and change the narrative. 

Maryam’s first narrative feature fiction film, CIRCUMSTANCE, premiered to overwhelming critical acclaim at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. The film won the coveted Sundance Audience Award. Maryam’s sophomore feature VIPER CLUB starring Academy Award Winner Susan Sarandon and Golden Globe Winner Edie Falco had its world premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2018 and was released theatrically by Roadside Attractions. 

Maryam’s third feature. THE PERSIAN VERSION premiered in Main Competition at the Sundance Film Festival 2023, where it won the U.S. Dramatic Competition Audience Award and The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. Keshavarz is the first director in Sundance history to win the Audience Award twice. 

It is now playing in theatres

Today’s guest is SHRUTI GANGULY an award-winning filmmaker and writer based in Oslo and New York City and we are talking about her feature length directorial debut Tripped Up which opens on October 20.

Tripped Up synopsis: Aspiring chef Lizzy sets off with her three best friends in tow to compete in the prestigious Saucy Food Festival. What begins as a calculated career move quickly turns into a madcap misadventure full of food, fun and female bonding, where the girls learn that struggle can be the secret ingredient to success.

Check out my interviews with Susanna Fogel, director of Cat Person and Tracy Droz Tragos, director of Plan C.

Susanna Fogel is a director, screenwriter, and novelist.  She co wrote the great comedy Booksmart, for which she was nominated for a BAFTA and a WGA Award, and the pilot of the Amazon series The Wilds.

Tracy Droz Tragos is a filmmaker drawn to issues involving women, inequality, and rural America. Her film Rich Hill, won the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and she focused on abortion in her film Abortion: Stories Women Tell.

A discussion of films from TIFF including:

How to Have Sex

Back Spot

The End We Start From

Irena's Vow

Lee

Zone of Interest

Origin

Conversation with documentary director, Dawn Porter discussing her new Showtime miniseries Deadlocked which premieres on September 22.

Melissa discusses two documentaries from the Toronto International Film Festival

Copa 71

https://www.tiff.net/events/copa-71

Sorry/Not Sorry

https://www.tiff.net/events/sorry-not-sorry

Melissa gives a brief overview of the problematic men dominating the headlines and gives a preview of some TIFF titles directed by women.

Show Notes:

Problematic Men

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/woody-allen-venice-2023-very-lucky-my-whole-life-1235581412/

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/spanish-actor-gabriel-guevara-arrested-at-venice-film-festival-on-sexual-assault-charge-1235581060/

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/roman-polanski-woody-allen-protested-venice-film-festival-1235581112/

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20230905-venice-film-festival-the-controversial-directors-stirring-debate

Ava Duvernay

https://variety.com/2023/film/global/ava-duvernay-origin-venice-premiere-1235697692/

Barbie

https://variety.com/2023/film/box-office/barbie-highest-grossing-worldwide-movie-year-1235705510/

Liz Garbus

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/gilgo-beach-serial-killer-netflix-docuseries-liz-garbus-1235708499/

Taylor Swift

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/taylor-swift-eras-tour-amc-big-screen-release-1235578794/